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Minimalism & Capsule Wardrobes

“Capsule wardrobe” and “minimalism” have been around for some time like “simple living” from the 70s and the term keeps evolving. There are different variations and purposes for such “downsizing”. Author Margareta Magnusson terms it “Swedish death cleaning” (I donated over 30 pieces of old clothing while I was listening to her audiobook). Author John Piper terms it “war-time living” (a great reflective piece with his comparison to cruise ship living). And I am sure you have heard of other terms as well.

Whether you are thinking about starting yours or already have, there are various reasons people do so. Some do it to save money, help the environment, fight against fast fashion, de-clutter and to feel more mindful, to focus on a particular style, to mix-and-matching easily to save time, or for simplicity’s sake and to focus more time on other important things. No doubt that there are many benefits for organising your wardrobe and to know how many pieces of clothing you actually have (and finding and re-utilizing all the ones you’ve forgotten about)!

This may be on the more “extreme” end to some, but a very fun experiment by Maria Lee to wear the same dress for a month and mix-and-match with different accessories that started me thinking of the purpose of clothing :-

She sets out her whole wardrobe collection on her blog. Definitely a good reminder on what’s already in the wardrobe, and helpful when shopping for new pieces to match them! Keeping the ones that you really like and matching it accordingly.

I don’t have the same wardrobe as her, but I found a simple and affordable storage solution at IKEA to begin my journey on cutting down my existing wardrobe. Should you want to check it out, here are some suggestions: